Judge hits out over alleged ‘shebeen’

An ‘alleged shebeen’ was how a District Court Judge described a public house, whose two proprietors are each facing three charges of trading without a licence.

“So what we are talking about is an alleged shebeen,” remarked Judge James Faughnan as he adjourned the cases against the pub’s operators to a sitting next month.

Before Tuam District Court were Cathal Blake, Liskeavy, Milltown, and Peter McDaid, Ballymara, Milltown, who between them faced six charges of operating without a licence during the first half of August last year.

The defendants were represented in court by solicitor Eric Gleeson who had earlier represented them in an application for the transfer of the famous McDonagh’s Pub on Shop Street in Tuam and said that they were awaiting a fire officer’s report and applied for the adjournment.

A previous sitting of the court earlier this year heard that the proprietors were on ‘a yellow card’ for breaching Covid-19 restrictions after having 20 people on their premises without social distancing being complied with.

Judge James Faughnan made his comments at Tuam District Court when he was hearing a similar application for the transfer of the publican’s licence. There had been Garda opposition to this process.

The Judge had previously refused to grant the application as he was not satisfied that the applicants were complying with the regulations in place.

However, Judge Faughnan granted the transfer of the licence to proprietors Peter McDaid and Cathal Blake for McDonagh’s pub in Tuam subject to conditions being complied with but warned them that they were on a yellow card.

They were found to be operating without a licence and were then said to have had something of a lock-in by having 20 people on the premises with doors at both the front and back being locked.

The pub was forced to close by the Judge who adjourned the application of the transfer of the licence until a future date. But he warned the applicants that they had to comply with regulations.

Gardaí had raised objections to the ad-interim transfer of the licence of McDonagh’s on Shop Street into the names of proprietors Peter McDaid and Cathal Blake who also run the Cellar Bar on the same street, on the grounds that they were operating without a licence for the same alleged offences last August.

Judge Faughnan had adjourned the application until the Gardaí were satisfied that the pub could guarantee compliance with all their obligations.